Article Courtesy of The Florida Times-Union
By Nate Monroe
Published October 11, 2016

Head south on the Interstate 295 beltway, past the office parks and bug-infested retention ponds on the outskirts of Jacksonville, cross into St. Johns County, turn left onto Davis Pond Boulevard, and enter a suburban oasis.

Damp grass lines the roads in this little burg of more than 5,000 upscale homes, where residents go in search of better schools and safe streets, quietly tucked behind miles of sprawl.

But this prim suburban veneer masks a seething anger brewing among many neighbors here.

A governing board of residents is — not for the first time — bitterly divided over the management of the neighborhood’s considerable amenities, which include pools, tennis courts and recreation and fitness centers.

The fracas already led to the creation of a lengthy investigative report, at the cost of thousands of dollars to the neighborhood residents, on the manager in charge of those amenities — a report the manager says was politically motivated and done to ruin her reputation.

The acrimony has been enough to convince the chairman of the board to step down Tuesday from office, saying in his resignation letter that his tenure has been “marked by a constant stream of hateful remarks and personal attacks coming from those who stood to lose the most from the (neighborhood) no longer catering to them.”

The personal and intense nature of the parochial feud is remarkable. Read more: